Immortal Muse by Stephen Leigh

Author:Stephen Leigh
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier: 1791

NEARLY TWO YEARS. That was how long it took her to find the perfect balance of ingredients for the elixir. Too little blood, and the elixir worked as it had before, granting the mice an extended youth and lifetime, but still forcing the sudden and rapid aging to eventually kill them. Too much blood, and the elixir seemed to rage through them like a fire, regressing them to embryonic stages far too early to be viable, or simply killing them outright in a few moments. In her cages there were mice trapped in an eternal infancy—they were the most pitiful of all.

Nearly two years. Sometimes she thought that France itself was replicating her experiments, and—like her—eternally failing to find the right mixture. In the wake of what had come to be called the Women’s Bread March, King Louis and the royal family had been forcibly returned to Paris from Versailles, but that had not ended the crisis. The next year brought the suppression of monastic vows and religious orders, saw the nobility abolished by the National Assembly, and in February of this year, there had been the “Day of Daggers,” as Lafayette ordered the arrest of over 400 aristocrats at the Tuileries Palace. The royal family, in June, had tried to flee to Varennes, but had been captured; Louis XVI was forced to return to Paris. There were reports of a bloody slave uprising in Saint Domingue.

Finally, in the last week, the king had formally accepted the new Constitution. Marie-Anne hoped that would finally end the bloodshed and uproar, but nothing was certain. Not in these days.

Also during those two years, Verdette, the Lavoisier cat she had named after her daughter, was rapidly failing. Once an active mouser who could often be found prowling their rooms and laboratories, she now mostly slept in a reed basket made into a bed in Marie-Anne’s small lab. She seemed to want only Marie-Anne’s presence, and Marie-Anne would often look up to find the cat regarding her curiously as she mixed solutions and purified chemicals in the retorts.

Now, Marie-Anne paused as she held what she hoped was the true elixir, in a small, blue crystalline vial. She saw the mice in their cages; she could add a few drops to their food and observe what happened. Her notebook was already open, with an inkwell and two quill pens set alongside. This time . . . she was certain. She could sense it.

Verdette glanced at her and mewled piteously, as if in pain. That made her hesitate. She glanced at the cages of mice, then at Verdette. She went to the cat, scratching her behind her ears. Her fur was dull, as well as matted in some places; she’d stopped grooming herself a few months ago. Antoine had mentioned several times that Verdette probably would not be alive for the turn of the new year. “We don’t really need immortal mice, do we?” Marie-Anne said to the cat, who was leaning into her fingers.

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